Alexandria Representative Lance Harris has been re-elected to his state House seat after his lone opponent withdrew from next month’s election. Eric Gill reports…
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Fundraising continues for the building of the National Hurricane Museum and Science Center in Lake Charles. Emelie Gunn has more….
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Alexandria Representative Lance Harris has been re-elected to his state House seat after his lone opponent withdrew from next month’s election. The Secretary of State’s Office reports that Vivian Brossett of Boyce dropped out of the race for the District 25 House seat. Harris says he’s grateful for another term in office…
Harris is the current chairman of the state House Republican Delegation. He expects the state’s budget issues to be the main focus for lawmakers for years to come. Harris says the recent report from the Jindal Administration that Louisiana ended its most recent fiscal year with a deficit is troubling…
Harris is hopeful that legislators can make appropriate changes to the budget under the leadership of our next governor. He says we didn’t get into this budget mess overnight and it will take time to fix it. Harris believes it will take a plan laid out over several years that solves the most critical problems first…
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Efforts continue to raise money to build the National Hurricane Museum and Science Center in Lake Charles. Supporters of the project have collected 42-million dollars in pledges and they’re still seeking another 15-million in the hopes of opening the 68-thousand square foot facility in 2018. Gray Stream is leading the fundraising efforts and he says the building has two purposes, it’ll serve as a museum and a research center.
Gray says research will take place at the museum to help better protect Louisiana from future hurricane damage. He says their goal is to collect information and distribute it to other hurricane experts.
Gray says he’s pleased with how the fundraising has been going and hopes the dollars keep rolling in.
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The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office is investigating two armed robberies connected to the creation of false accounts on the website “plenty of fish.com.” Capt. Dawn Foret says during both incidents, each victim believed he was meeting a woman from the dating site but when he arrived to meet her, it wasn’t what he expected.
Foret says four suspects were arrested, 20-year-old Aaron Kenny of Houma and 21-year-old Gregory Holloway of Schriever were charged with two counts of armed robbery with a firearm. She says 17-year-old Jasmine Dupont of Gibson is accused of being the bait for the victims and charged with one count of armed robbery with a firearm and the fourth suspect is a 20-year-old from Dulac.
Foret says the suspects used a picture of a 16-year-old girl from Houma for the website, without her knowledge. She says when it comes to crimes linked to technology, the cops will catch up with you and you can’t hide behind an online alias.
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The Attorney General’s Office says they’ve made a second arrest in an elaborate financial fraud scheme that claimed hundreds of victims and millions of dollars. Assistant AG Kurt Wall says the original suspect, 24-year-old Donald Batiste of Baton Rouge, allegedly marketed stolen social security numbers for a “credit repair” company
Wall says 64-year-old Brenda Taylor of Carencro is accused of co-conspiring with Batiste to create fake bank records in an attempt to receive a $250,000 loan she claimed was for her church. He says many people, many children, had their identities stolen but an exact number of victims is not known at this time…:
Wall says the conspiracy also affected financial institutions and car dealerships and resulted in more than $1 million dollars in funded auto loans. Millions were also used on credit lines at clothing and jewelry stores, banks and cell phone purchases. Wall says Batiste’s charges include felony racketeering and he faces 75 years in prison:
cut 14 (08) “think about that”
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